Deixo este comentário, escrito em 1991 por W.E. Mackay-Smith, figura proeminente no mundo "bullie", como introdução ao estalão do BTCA. Ao contrário do que se passa em outras raças, talvez, mais populares, a abordagem ao julgamento da qualidade de um Bull Terrier deverá ser sempre feita sob um prisma positivo e relativo às qualidades globais do exemplar em questão.
The Bull Terrier presents difficulties for breeder and judges striving to achieve the qualities called for in the Breed Standard. These stem principally from the necessity to see the animal as a whole, because the whole is far more important than the parts or details. The serious student must be able to see perfection standing and moving in the mind's eye. Once the ideal is visualized, the animal which comes closest to that ideal in POSITIVE virtues is the one which should achieve success in the show ring and which will ultimately achieve success in breeding. It is only animals which possess virtues of head, bone, substance, shapeliness, soundness and temperament which will pass these on to the next generations. Faults in Bull Terriers are departures from the ideal construction, and the seriousness of the fault is in direct proportion to its degree of departure. Ours is not a breed in which success or failure hinges on a few odd-colored hairs, an extra dewclaw, or a misaligned incisor. The writers of the Bull Terrier Standard took a positive attitude toward the virtues which should be present. This shifts the responsibility to breeders and judges to develop a visualization of the ideal Bull Terrier, and then to develop the skill to find those animals whose sum of virtues most nearly fulfills the ideal. Very little is written in the Bull Terrier Standard about faults, and fault-judging has no place except when deciding between two animals of equal virtue, or when the fault is to a degree which severely mars the health, function or appearance of the dog.
